Stones from the Giant’s Causeway and a copy of Emmet’s Proclamation are included in an auction next week
THE OLDEST lot ever to be offered for sale at an Irish auction will go under the hammer at Whyte’s next Saturday. Four stones from the Giant’s Causeway – 50 million years old – come from a private garden in Co Donegal where they have been used as a decorative feature for the last 50 years.
The estimate is €3,000-€4,000. Last year in England, similar stones sold at auction for £18,500. Whyte’s said: “Examples of these stones in private collections are extremely rare as the Causeway area has been National Trust property for many years and it is illegal to remove anything from the site.”
The sale catalogue should appeal not just to collectors, but to anyone with even the most cursory interest in Irish life and history.
The top lot is a copy of Robert Emmet's 1803 Proclamation The Provisional Government – To the People of Ireland(€30,000- €50,000), described as "one of the rarest, if not the rarest important printed document of Irish revolutionary history".
Only three copies of the document are believed to survive, all in private hands, according to Whyte’s, and this is one of them.
There are over 600 lots in the sale and some of the minor ones are most intriguing. A letter from Charles Haughey evokes the late former Taoiseach’s interest in collecting art. In 1967 he wrote to artist Eric Patton enclosing “55 guineas in respect of No 3, deserted harbour”.
A 19th century document sent to one deer-hunting Lord Sackville authorised him to “Kill . . . One Fat Buck, out of Her Majesty’s Park, called The Phoenix Park . . . and deliver the same for the use of The Lord Lieutenant”.
A conveyancing solicitor might like to decorate the office walls with an 1860 document outlining the “reversion of title to lands at Coolock, County Dublin, owned by King Leopold of Belgium and Queen Adelaide of Great Britain”.
Various 19th century posters are surely destined to brighten up pubs and hotels around the country.
One absolute gem is an advertisement for 20 tons of stable manure to be auctioned by Mr Thomas Dillon on the 10th September 1883 stipulating the steaming heap “must be removed within a week” from his premises at Bachelor’s Walk.
One of the most poignant – yet amusing – documents is a report of 19th century inquests in Co Carlow where the causes of death included “eating mushrooms”, the “blow of a stone”, “falling out of a cart”, “drinking to excess” and “Visitation of God”. Hours of bed-time reading fun and the perfect gift to give the garda, coroner or crime reporter in your life. (€300-€500).
But who, on earth, would want a 1922 cartoon, drawn on Dáil Éireann notepaper, titled: “Hang the Attorney General”?
* Whyte’s History, Literature & Collectiblessale on Saturday, April 16th, 1pm, Freemasons’ Hall, Molesworth Street, D2.
